


Have Fun Being Young

by keicros_caramel



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Child Oikawa Tooru, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Mentioned Ushijima Wakatoshi, Parent-Child Relationship, Random & Short, Short One Shot, Slice of Life, glitch in the matrix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25460272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keicros_caramel/pseuds/keicros_caramel
Summary: Iwaizumi wakes up one day and sees his bestfriend switch places with his ten-year-old self. He took it upon himself to take care of Minikawa for an entire month.>> Oikawa Tooru but as an amnesiac ten-year-old.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 3
Kudos: 109





	Have Fun Being Young

**Author's Note:**

> Think of it as Minikawa being his and Oikawa’s child, lmao.

“Here you go, kid.” The ice cream vender reached down and handed the vanilla ice cream onto the child’s small hands. “What’s your name?” 

Brown eyes scanned the ice cream before looking up at Iwaizumi in confusion. He sighed, patting the child’s head and smiling apologetically at the ice cream vendor. 

“Ah, I’m sorry,” he said, “He doesn’t do well with strangers.” 

“I see,” the man nodded. “Enjoy your ice cream, kid!” 

Iwaizumi and Oikawa nodded, watching the ice cream truck drive away. Oikawa, standing beside him happily devouring the ice cream, remained quiet for the entire afternoon. 

“Hey,” he called, almost spitting out the ‘Trashkawa’ nickname he’d usually call him. “You forgot your name already?” 

When he looked at him, it was undeniably Oikawa’s face staring back. Except it was rounder, smaller, and fuller than the one he knew. Iwaizumi crouched down and faced the child on his eye level. 

With his Oikawa Tooru gone, he only started to appreciate the fact they were born on the same era. It would have hurt more if ever were they cursed by the heavens, born in different spaces, separated by millions of eons. It truly was an honor to live on the same time as the one you love. 

“Your name's Oikawa Tooru. You call me Iwa-chan.”

It had been three weeks since he started living with an amnesiac version of his bestfriend. Whatever lucid dream he is in right now, or whatever hallucinatory drugs Hanamaki and Matsukawa had him take, taking care of Oikawa’s ten-year-old version is still something he cannot ignore whether he wanted to or not. If he woke up one day naked on a grocery aisle after the hallucinogens wore off, he only told himself he'll burn the bridge when he gets there. For now, he's somehow responsible for an indefinite and payless babysitting gig he never signed up for. 

“Oi...kawa Tooru,” Minikawa said. Iwaizumi reached and wiped the small ice cream residue on his face. It was something he had never done in a long time. Now that Oikawa’s back to when he was still a messy eater, it may have brought back some fond memories. 

“Very good.” It was the upteenth time he reminded the child of his own name. “Once more. What’s your name again?”

“Oikawa Tooru...?” 

“Great, that's you. You're Oikawa Tooru, and you call me Iwa-chan.”

The child’s brown eyes suddenly beamed up, his hands reaching up and almost tipping his ice cream over. 

“Iwa-chan!”

His heart swelled. 

“Careful, Shi—Oikawa.” At his mistake, he summoned his greatest smile and patted Minikawa on his fluffy hair, internally proud that his name is more familiar to the child than even his own. He also needed to get rid of his nicknames in a while—it may have been Oikawa, but this one’s a child. 

This kid, or rather Oikawa as a whole, may be a pain on his head but a gift to his heart. Something about it kept him sane for the three weeks the kid kept forgetting who he was.

“Let’s go home?” 

“Okay!” 

_God, how he missed this side of his bestfriend._ The not annoying, always hungry, pure and innocent version. 

They reached their home and Minikawa immediately plopped onto the couch, sighing at the comfort of Iwaizumi’s home that he called as his. 

In the time he spent with Minikawa so far, there are a lot of adjustments made. The glow-in-the-dark star stickers went back to shine once again on his bedroom ceiling. His old sleepover futon is also back in business as Minikawa took his bed every night, and he's once again forced to use alien-themed children's toothpaste Oikawa had as a child. 

His routine also changed, most in fact. He had to make sure Minikawa finishes his dinner, gets his teeth brushed, gets into his pajamas and onto (his) bed by 9. It was a painful sacrifice in the beginning, he got to admit. It felt more like he was a house-husband taking care of his son rather than an older sibling watching over the younger. 

This version of his bestfriend is so far in the past that he still thanked the star stickers on the ceiling before he went to bed, like how he did when they’re ten. Iwaizumi can only tell him to thank the stars all he want, it will still be him who will be the luckiest in the end. Why? He may love Oikawa, but Oikawa can never have the grace to meet himself through someone else's eyes. It was a shame he would never see the beauty of his own existence, and Iwaizumi thanked the heavens he was cursed ( ~~blessed~~ ) with it instead. 

This all started when he woke up on the first of July with a crying noise. He had just spent a long night having Oikawa over, so he immediately got up in realization it was almost noon. What met him on the futon that Oikawa was supposed to be on, is a child that had the same face as he did. It was mostly a surreal experience; nothing else seemed out of place. Hanamaki and Matsukawa proceeded to live their lives as usual, despite having no one to make fun of on Instagram. The same could be said with their other teammates and even Oikawa’s family. 

Iwaizumi glanced at his phone and saw the date. Today is now July 31st, making it Minikawa’s first month stay tomorrow. 

“Iwa-chan! Can we watch Netflix again?” A voice boomed from the living room, just as Iwaizumi changed into comfier clothes upstairs. 

“Idiot, there isn’t any Netflix from where you came from,” he mumbled. “Yes! Okay! I’ll be down there.” 

At this point, he gotten used to it. According to Minikawa’s story when he first appeared, it seemed he was having the same sleepover with his Iwa-chan and woke up to see he had grown. With a few quick google searches and a couple dozen coffees to make sure he’s wide awake, it seemed it had something to do with parallel universes and such. There’s a great chance that when Minikawa appeared here, his own Oikawa went back into the past. 

For one whole month, Iwaizumi tried his best to take care of his bestfriend. Not just on the physical sense, but also on the mental sense. There are a lot of technology, events and the general concept of the “Future” that Minikawa isn’t supposed to know, as someone from the past. Iwaizumi can only worry if he’s causing some kind of time travel paradox thing from how much Minikawa knows the future at this point. To be safe, he never told him anything   
about future injuries, future decisions and future problems. He did let him use his Netflix though. 

Now that he thought of it, it must have been why Oikawa kept blabbering about dejavu bullshit when they go to the movies. 

“Hey, what did you pick?” he asked as he approached the living room, seeing Minikawa scroll past the selection. The child didn’t reply. 

In that one month, he noticed how the child was quieter than how he was used to, and that he was both a far cry and a carbon copy of the Oikawa Tooru that grew up with him. It refreshed some fond memories from the back of Iwaizumi's headーlike when they watched some movie and Minikawa kept licking his fingers after the leftover popcorn flavoring. There were also times when he noticed how he fidgeted with his hands behind his back when upset, when he remembered how his smaller footsteps sounded like coming down the stairs, when he realized Oikawa is just as an astrology and zodiac nerd back then as he was now. 

“Oh, Alien versus Predator!” 

He realized that growing up, Oikawa may have learned how to hide certain quirks better, but there are still the little things he wasn't bothered to get rid of at all. If the real Oikawa was there with them right now, in a scenario he liked to imagine where they're husbands and Minikawa was their son, Oikawa would also be licking on his fingers, would also hop down the stairs two at a time like an abnormal person, and would also call him a meany Gemini more than anything. 

“Okay. Let’s go with that.” 

Somehow, in the depths of his consciousness, he wasn't opposed to the domestic fantasy. If he can have a timeline where they both exist and have a great domestic life together, he will pack his things and leave this life behind altogether, no questions asked. 

* * *

Sometimes, he was doing some chores and happen to check a glance at Minikawa, who spent most of his time at Iwaizumi’s spacious living room. By then, he can only stare from the corner he was standing at, watching the kid breeze through his photo albums, or groan at the unfamiliar cartoons on the tv, or nap on his couch. He always felt his heart ache at the realization that this child haven't had any girlfriends yet, haven't cried through a breakup yet, haven't received a best setter award yet. This kid had yet to injure his knee, had yet to cry himself to sleep for three years straight, and had yet to face the problems he guided his own Oikawa through. 

For a short while, this kid seemed like a far away stranger that is nowhere close to the Oikawa he knew now, and he was glad it was. His bestfriend had came through a lot and grew stronger than ever, and he wished this child the same. In his prayers, he wished that when those problems came to Minikawa and his first painful tears came to be shed, he would never be alone. 

“Oh, it’s me!” Minikawa pointed to a photo of them at their 10s. “Iwa-chan and I just took this photo last year...” 

“Ah, well. Oikawa and I took that photo a decade ago.” 

With that said, he knew better than to worry too much. He compromised with the thought that his child also had his own Iwa-chan waiting back home, who he had a feeling was either freaking out and searching the neighborhood for him, or having a hard time dealing with a 6ft tall lookalike of his alien-loving bestfriend. Whichever it was, he hoped for the best that this kid will push through the problems triumphant as ever, perhaps even more than the Oikawa he had known all his life. 

This kid will come to know the things he'll know, and Iwaizumi wished him well. Because you know what? The kid will face the greatest of problems and punch through them until he's bleeding, and by then he won't even stop. This kid is the same person as the bravest, strongest, most amazing man he ever knew. He was glad to have been with him all his life. 

* * *

“Who's this, Iwa-chan?” 

The photo is taken at a volleyball court. 

“That's...Ushijima Wakatoshi.” He was about to tell more about the man, but held his tongue in curiosity. Oikawa looked at the photo with a deepset frown on his face, and it wasn’t even the kind he would show to the Ushijima now. He doesn’t even know Ushijima yet! “Why?” 

In the picture Minikawa held, the stoic man stood with them and the rest of their teams, a soft smile gracing his features on the most delighted expression it could get. It was an obligatory photo of Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa after a practice match, and needless to say, captains had to stand next to each other. 

The child frowned deeply as Iwaizumi took the seat nearby the couch. In their speechlessness, Iwaizumi pointed to the brunet teen beside Ushijima. “That's you. That's how you look like now.”

“I'm taller than Iwa-chan?” 

The insult-ridden retort remained at the back of his throat. Though he already called him a bunch of names as a child, Minikawa may not appreciate being bullied by an adult. Nobody does. Iwaizumi decided to laugh sheepishly, as he trusts that this Oikawa will not make fun of him in return. 

“You made fun of it sometimes.”

“Why would I, Iwa-chan?” Minikawa looked back down to the photo and pouted. “I still hate this guy though.” 

Hate at first sight? They haven’t even met yet. 

“He's just a sports rival.” Iwaizumi knew that was a half lie. He doesn’t have the heart to tell the kid that Ushijima is more to him than just that. “Don't hate the guy too much.”

“I dislike him then.” 

Iwaizumi only sighed. 

* * *

“Ah! I like the future, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa jumped onto him just as the credits start to roll. “There are a lot more movies here than home!” 

Ah yes, home. This isn’t where he’s meant to stay. “Right. You need to go to bed.” 

“Eh?!” 

“Come on.” Iwaizumi wondered when and where he got this much patience and tolerance from. “Go brush your teeth. You ate too much popcorn.” 

“It’s delicious...” 

* * *

“Goodnight hug, Iwa-chan!” 

“Huh?!” He jumped, feeling a hand grab him by his shirt. “Hug?” 

He also can’t explain to the child that that hug evolved to a goodnight kiss in the future. He hugged him, much to his bestfriend’s delight, and went back to his futon. 

Most nights, after he got Minikawa asleep and he’s now alone on the futon, he kept himself up by worrying how his own Oikawa was doing. Tonight was no exception. 

There were questions like ‘What kind of morning he had with Iwaizumi’s mini version?’ What did he eat for breakfast? What did he and Mini-Hajime talk about all day? He can barely worry for his child self as he knew 10-year-old him can still kick older Oikawa's ass, so he worried more about how Oikawa was doing, or rather what Oikawa decided to do to his younger self.

If his knowledge of his bestfriend is accurate and reliable enough, Oikawa must have his phone gallery full of selfies with Mini-Hajime already. For a second, he considered doing the same with Minikawa, though the act was "too Oikawa Tooru" he can't get himself to it. It was his bestfriend's thing. Doing it only emphasized the fact he wasn't there to do it himself. 

Aside from that, he wondered what Oikawa was thinking. Was he feeling too lonely in the past? Was he feeling awkward living in a time where everything is back to when it shouldn't have been? Or perhaps he liked it back then? 

Did he visit Aoba Johsai in the past? Did he visit Kageyama and the other guys around town as kids and scared them like he always looked like he wanted to do? Did he already pinpoint Mini-Ushijima's location and served a volleyball to his face like, once again, he always wanted to do? Or was he spending his days sleeping inside of a house, wanting nothing more but to be brought back home? 

Most of all, Iwaizumi wondered if he's doing okay. Though he's confident that Mini-Hajime can kick Oikawa's ass, Mini-Hajime is unfortunately less aware of Oikawa's tendency to self-destruct once left unattended. He gets his sleep schedule to shit if Iwaizumi didn't set his alarms for him, and he misses food if he gets too engrossed in whatever he busied himself on. 

_God, he wished Mini-Hajime is taking care of his Oikawa well._ With his own Minikawa with him, he wished Mini-Hajime hope, strength peace as well. They were just human, children or not. They all needed to be safe and to be loved, no matter what their age told them what they should be capable of living without. 

At that compromise, he fell asleep. 

* * *

“Iwa-chan!” 

He sat up from his futon in surprise. “W-what?!” 

He felt a weight on his chest, and with the tuft of brown hair and the warmth of the tears seeping into his clothes, he reached and cradled him in his arms. 

“Shhh, what’s wrong?” 

_God, this brings back so much memories._

“Did you get abducted in your dreams again?” 

“N-no.” 

“It’s okay,” Iwaizumi whispered, trying his best. 

“I’m scared...”

“Of what?” 

“I want to go home...” 

As he dried the kid's tears, he heard bits of the nightmare-ish story between his hiccups, and he can only hug him through his difficult time. It was reminiscient of all the times Oikawa had anxiety attacks of paranoia and worthlessness, and he was thankful he was with him through all that. He whispered to the child, hoping that the message relays to the real Oikawa's ears, “I’m always going to be here, Oikawa.” 

Their childhood had been lovely. Whatever it is, it is not something to be scared of. He hoped the real and the younger version of Oikawa knew that. 

“Your past is not a threat, it's what held you to me.” And he'll repeat that over and over on the hundred more mental breakdowns to come. 

“Iwa-chan...” 

Sometimes, he'd like to just approach Oikawa (both the older and younger versions) and give him a swift dose of reality and then a tight hug. Heaven knows how much he wanted to tell Oikawa to take it easy; to do something than hurt himself all the time. He'd like to tell him, “Stop being so mean to yourself!” but everytime he had an urge to go talk, Oikawa had already turned to face him. _I know_ , he answered before Iwaizumi can say anything, _I know. I’m trying._

Everytime Minikawa comes to him crying, whether it would be because of spilled milk or homesickness for his own timeline, Iwaizumi was there to cradle him in his arms and shush him until he lets it all out and sleep. When he puts him down to a nap after crying, he may or may not have spent a few couple hours holding Minikawa's hand and crying beside him. He knew sadness comes to everyone—he was once a child too—but no one really deserves to be so tired and lost at this age. 

This time, the hand didn't leave his shirt, and in his sleep, Minikawa mumbled something that may have resumed his crying session if he didn't know better. 

“I'm scared of the dark, Iwa-chan.”

Iwaizumi can only take a deep breath, finally understanding it mustn't have been the room's darkness the child was talking about. It must have been the darkness of the road ahead. It must have been the time for the child to return back home. 

He sighed, a beat, then cradled the child on his chest, “Me too.”

* * *

He waited until Minikawa’s breath evened before he went to fall asleep himself. When he woke up the next day, with his bestfriend’s peaceful sleeping greeting him a good morning, that's how he was sure he slept really well. With a heavy arm draped over his torso, and the familiar long legs tangled with his, even he himself felt like he just stepped foot in a home after a war. 

“You're here,” he whispered, trying his best to keep his tears at bay. 

With his own Oikawa back—with the body that grew up along with him, with the scars he knew the stories of, with the arms that currently held him in sleep—Iwaizumi could only cuddle back in return. Wherever Minikawa was right now, he wished the child had slept well. He had always talked about how tired he was. 

The moment he slammed his face deep into the chest he missed so much, hearing the heartbeat that synchronized with his, the arms that held his body tightened a little bit. A head nuzzled onto his neck, and they breathed in the other's scent that undeniably smelled like home. 

“Good morning, my Iwa-chan,” a soft hum graced his ears. “I'm back.”

“You are.” Iwaizumi held him closer. “And so you really are.” 

_Fin._

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, well. It ended three days ago, but I’m not leaving. It’s such a shame; I just got here!


End file.
